Before & After Photos: My Bedroom Mess

It was a Saturday in January and I asked Nate if I could have some alone time to work on cleaning up our bedroom. My neat-freak husband responded, “I’ve been waiting my whole life to hear you say that.”

The bedroom wasn’t that bad, but we tend to have a flair for the dramatic in our house.

The bulk of the mess was concentrated in the space by the window and ironing board.

MY LATEST VIDEOS

The first thing I did was put away two baskets of clean laundry. I never put away laundry on the same day I wash it. I don’t think I ever put away laundry the day after I wash it. My laundry baskets seem to have a required 3 day minimum waiting period before they are allowed to be emptied.

The laundry was the easy part. This basket was the part I was dreading.

This was my “Birthday Party Basket.” I was hosting a birthday party and grabbed this basket to collect all the clutter from around the house.

Who’s birthday? I was hoping you wouldn’t ask…

I gathered all this clutter before Grace’s birthday… *ahem* in September.

The logical guess would be that I don’t need anything in this basket since it had been sitting there untouched for nearly 4 months. Wrong.

The best thing that came out of my bedroom clean up was finding this night light in my “Birthday Party Basket.” This is the night light we use in our bathroom, which has no windows. It is super dark in there in the middle of the night. Sadly, I visit the bathroom in the middle of the night on a regular basis since my little one likes to wake me up. every. single. night.

After I put away all the laundry, birthday party clutter, and other odds and ends, I gave the bedroom a good cleaning. I dusted, vacuumed, and washed the baseboards. It felt amazing to have such a clean bedroom!

Ready for the after photo? DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!

The good news is that except for some laundry (don’t judge me!) our room still looks like this a month later! Whoo-hoo!

Don’t have time to read a 240 page book? Dana White, the author of Decluttering at the Speed of Life, also has a quick eCourse that is excellent.

The 5 Day Clutter Shakedown is five short videos (the longest is just 13 minutes) that cover how to declutter without making a bigger mess, how to find the time to declutter, and the two most important questions to ask yourself when decluttering.

Comments

Nope, my laundry baskets get emptied right away. However, my dryer very rarely does until I have a new load waiting to go in. My boyfriend is pretty much trained to look for clean clothes in the dryer first, the dresser second.

The sad thing about this is I barely use the dryer to dry clothes, maybe 1 in 10 loads. I hang most loads to dry around the apartment, then just toss them in the dryer for a few minutes to soften and unwrinkle them. Then leave them in there for days on end.

I’m really proud of you for getting it done so quickly. I live alone and today since I’m snowed in and the highways for miles are all closed im folding clothes ,throwing away some and hating every minute of it because they are all wrinkled bad so back into the dryer with something wet to get them out !! My sister started something I should have , when she does laundry she folds it all on the bed,that way they have to get folded ,her family won’t wear anything that hasn’t been ironed so she puts all the newly folded clothes in the drawers and when they decided what they are wearing for the day they head to the laundry room and iron it themselves dad included lol She has worked outside of the home forever so this has worked well for her .

The laundry only stays in the basket maybe a few days. If I’m doing laundry and Chad is already in bed I set the basket on the dresser for when we are both awake. If we are both up it gets put away immediately.

Being the neat freak that i am, my laundry gets washed, dried and put away as soon as it is done. Having a husband and 3 young kids, i am doing laundry a lot and it would stress me out if i let it sit and pile up. So unless i am not feeling well, it gets done right away. I have major OCD!!! Otherwise it would probably sit awhile.

I take the laundry from the dryer and toss it into a basket before using my bed as a sorting/folding station, and I’ll have to admit, I do find myself dumping a neglected basket of clean laundry back into the dryer to de-wrinkle at least once a week (ok, sometimes more – but don’t tell).

I’m pretty good with cleaning up me and my husband’s clean laundry right away. Because I fold our laundry on our bed its so easy to clean up. However, my daughter’s clothes often get left on my dresser for days before I hang and put them away. I don’t know why I do it — it seems there’s too much walking involved ;).

Your room looks great! Oh, girl, if you could see the hot mess my laundry is in….. I sort and fold laundry right out of the dryer. Getting the baskets back UP all the stairs, now that’s another matter. This is precisely why we are trying to work in laundry on the 2nd floor in home plans for the house we want to build!

Our laundry is on the first floor and all our bedrooms are on the second floor. I’ve assigned my husband with the task of carrying the baskets of clean laundry up the steps. They aren’t that heavy. I just don’t like doing it.

I hate dragging the laundry up and down! I had a laundry chute in our last house. Even though the laundry was in the basement and bedrooms on second floor, I only had to carry it one way. Now, it’s still in the basement and we have no chute and 3 more bodies to clothe….

Kudos to you for keeping it looking good for the month after cleanup! I struggle with getting my piles cleaned up and then letting them pile up again. I just cleaned up my 2 trouble spots and am determined to keep them cleaned up. We’ll see how it goes. 🙂

And I waffle between being a fold the laundry the same day to fold the laundry 3 days later. I pretty much never let stuff get wrinkly though! I hate having to do the work twice. So I’ll take care of the shirts and stuff that will wrinkle and leave the rest for later.

Haha my laundry definitely has a waiting period! I can get it clean no prob, but I am terrible at folding it and putting it away.. Usually it gets into the correct room, but just collects in a pile again. It’s a problem. We are constantly digging through the dryer for clothes. Every Saturday morning becomes put-away-laundry morning.